Prior to the electronic imaging of art, each artwork could only be displayed at one location. If a copy of the artwork was made, then those copies could be displayed at additional locations. With the advent of electronic imaging of art, electronic images could be displayed at multiple locations using multiple computer displays, in addition, the artwork that is displayed at a computer display can be changed automatically at periodic intervals for one artwork to the next. A play list of images can be defined. The computer system that processes the play list displays each image in sequence at periodic intervals. In environments such as museums, a central computer system may control the displaying of a play list at various display devices throughout the museum. The central computer system may maintain a database of the images, and the museum administrator can define play lists and can specify on which display devices are the images of the play lists to be displayed. Such techniques for displaying art may be acceptable for museums, but may be unacceptable in other environments. The techniques may be acceptable in a museum because only the administrator from a central location defines the play lists and specifies the display devices at which the play lists are to be displayed and because each image that can possibly be displayed needs to be stored at the central computer system before it is assigned to a play list.
In other environments, such as a large house or an office building, it may be desirable to allow users to control the display of images from input devices throughout the environment. In addition, it would be desirable if the images that can be assigned to a play list were not limited to those currently stored at the computer system. Finally, it would be desirable if an image is automatically made available for inclusion in play lists when the computer system detects that the image satisfies user-specified criteria and that the bitmap for the image is now accessible and can be downloaded to the computer system.